Councillors debate pay for attending meetings
Some Sundre councillors believe they should be paid less to attend meetings than what is proposed in the council remuneration policy.
During the council meeting on March 17, Coun. Tony Jordan said being paid a flat rate of $90 for a half day of attending a meeting is too high.
The meetings include council recognized and budget approved conventions, seminars, out-of-town business and meetings, and retreats, workshops and budget meetings.
The flat rate is for attending the meeting for less than four hours, but Jordan believes councillors would be over claiming if they received $90 for attending for only a half hour.
Before this flat rate was proposed, councillors would receive $40 for the first hour and $20 for every hour after that, until they reach the half-day or full-day flat rate. The full-day flat rate is proposed at $175.
But Jordan believes the numbers should be lower, and Coun. Chris Vardas agreed. Mayor Terry Leslie and Coun. Myron Thompson were absent from the meeting.
The suggestions are going to be brought forward to the ad hoc committee and later brought back to council for approval.
According to the policy, the mayor receives an annual remuneration of $21,000 and councillors receive $12,500.
Town purchasing $12,000 server
Council approved for administration officials to spend up to $12,000 to purchase a new town server, during the council meeting on March 17.
Administration officials are having difficulties with the current server, including loss of emails and constant system shutdowns, according to Wanda Watson-Neufeld, the town's director of corporate services.
In October, officials began upgrading individual system operating systems to OS 10.9.1 from 10.6.8 or earlier versions, because MAC no longer supported 10.6.8, she said. But issues arose with each computer that was upgraded.
Officials deleted emails and purchased more RAM to try and solve the problem, but the issues still occurred.
“The amount of time lost is becoming extreme and very unmanageable with five main users having computer issues,” said Watson-Neufeld.
The town's information services contractor, OSI, investigated the situation and determined that the new operating system (10.9.1) is not compatible with the town's 2009 server.
“The new operating system uses different formats that our server does not recognize and then causes the server to try and auto correct what it thinks are problems, causing system shutdowns and email issues,” she said. “OSI is recommending purchasing a new HP Porliant server and repurposing our old 10.6 server for a non-critical role.”
The cost for purchasing and installation of the server is quoted at $11,862 and council approved up to $12,000 from general reserves.
Town partners with county for weed inspection services
The Town of Sundre is partnering with Mountain View County for weed inspection services in the 2014 season, for the third consecutive year.
The cost to the town is roughly $2,000 for the season, and $10,000 is budgeted for, according to a report to council from Jacci Hager, the town's manager of community services.
Council approved the partnership during the council meeting on March 17.
As well, council appointed Jane Fulton, manager of agriculture services for the county, and agriculture services senior staff members Lorelee Grattidge and Darcy Alm as the town's weed inspectors.
“The town's costs are significantly reduced as a result of working with Mountain View County as the Mountain View County Agriculture Services department is trained and familiar with identification, control, education, and information, and they are in our area as they conduct inspections within the county,” reported Hager.
“The Town of Sundre could hire and train a weed inspector for the Town of Sundre specifically, however, that is not financially recommended.”
In the 2013 season, the weed inspectors conducted 42 initial inspections compared to 56 the year before, plus nine re-inspections from the previous year, she said.
Council also appointed Sundre Regional Recreation Advisory Committee members as the Weed Inspection Appeal Panel in accordance with the weed control act.
Over the last three years, no appeals have been brought forward to the panel. However, an appeal panel is required each year, she said.
